History and Celestial TimeBy Walter Cruttenden

This will be one of the topics of conversation at the upcoming "Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge" to be held this October 6-7, at the University of California, San Diego. Speakers include Graham Hancock, Walter Cruttenden, Robert Bauval, Robert Schoch, John Anthony West, Laird Scranton, Marie D. Jones, John Burke, John Dering and one or two others still to be confirmed. For more info go to www.CPAKonline.com

Discoveries like the ancient Greek Antikythera computer (1500 years before the invention of precision geared devices) the Baghdad batteries (2000 years before Volta "invented" the battery) or dental and brain surgery artifacts found in ancient Pakistan (8000 years out of historical sequence) appear "anomalous" within our current paradigm of history. However, they are not unexpected according to the ancient cyclical view.

Giorgio de Santillana, the former professor of the history of science at MIT, tells us that most ancient cultures believed consciousness and history were not linear but cyclical, meaning they would rise and fall over long periods of times. In his landmark work, Hamlet's Mill, Giorgio and co-author Hertha von Dechend, showed that the myth and folklore of over 30 ancient cultures around the world spoke of a vast cycle of time with alternating Dark and Golden Ages that move with the precession of the equinox. Plato called this the Great Year.

Although the idea of a great cycle timed by the slow precession of the equinox was common to multiple cultures before the Christian era most of us were taught this is just a fairytale; there was no Golden Age. However, an increasing body of new astronomical and archaeological evidence suggests the cycle may have a basis in fact. More importantly, understanding the cycle might provide insight into where society is headed at this time and why consciousness may be expanding at an exponential rate. Understanding the cause of precession is key to understanding the cycle.

The standard theory of precession says it is principally the Moon's gravity acting upon the oblate Earth that must be the cause of the Earth's changing orientation to inertial space, a.k.a. the "precession of the equinox". However, ancient sources say the observable of an equinox slowly moving or "precessing" through the twelve constellations of the zodiac is simply due to the motion of the solar system through space (changing our viewpoint from Earth). Here at the Binary Research Institute, we have modeled a moving solar system and found it does indeed better produce the precession observable and resolves a number of solar system anomalies such as the uneven distribution of angular momentum within the solar system and the variable rate of precession. Beyond the technical considerations, a moving solar system might provide a logical reason why we have a Great Year with alternating Dark and Golden Ages. That is, if the solar system carrying the Earth actually moves in a huge orbit, subjecting the Earth to the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum of another star or EM source along the way, we could expect this would affect our magnetosphere, ionosphere and indirectly all life in a pattern commensurate with that orbit. Just as the Earth's smaller diurnal and annual motions produce the cycles of day and night and the seasons (both due to the Earth's changing position in relation to the EM spectrum of the Sun), so might the larger celestial motion be expected to produce a cycle that affects life and consciousness on a grand scale.

The hypothesis for how consciousness would be affected in such a celestial cycle builds on the work of Dr. Valerie Hunt, the former professor of physiology at UCLA. In a number of studies she has found that changes in the ambient EM field (that surrounds us all the time) can dramatically affect human cognition and performance. In short, consciousness is affected by immersion in EM fields. Consequently, the concept behind the Great Year or cyclical model of history, consistent with myth and folklore, is based on the Sun's motion through space, subjecting the Earth to waxing and waning stellar fields (all stars are huge generators of EM spectrum), resulting in the legendary rise and fall of the ages over great epochs of time.

In Lost Star of Myth and Time, we looked at some of the ancient myths about rising and falling ages tied to the precession cycle, explored current precession anomalies, outlined a dynamic solar system model that better explains the precession observable, and suggested a hypothesis for how a change in proximity to stellar-generated electro-magnetic fields might be the mechanism that induces cyclical changes on Earth. Here we would like to use this model as a guide to better understand where we have been in terms of consciousness and ancient civilizations in the past, and more importantly, where we are going in the future. As Graham Hancock stated, this "new - or very old - approach to the greatest problems of human history" could be "the "key to the mystery of the ages".